When Stars Go Out
by MistressesofSnark
Summary: Princess UnableToBePronouncedByMortals has begun attending Chaos High, where everyone loves her, except the only person she wants to love her. Shadow just wants this Mary Sue to leave him alone when signs of Eggman with another evil plot start showing up.
1. Chapter 1

It was a perfect day, the sun was shining, birds were singing, and the clouds floated lazily across the bright blue sky. It was days like today that would be perfect to spend with friends by going out to the park and maybe having a picnic. To peacefully sit in the tall green grass with the wind blowing through the trees. To do nothing but simply enjoy the peace and harmony of having friends without Eggman ruining the day.

Or at least, it would be if nobody was trapped inside the glorious hallways filled with anxious, socially awkward, and obnoxious teenagers. Welcome one and all to the magnificent Chaos High!

Shadow the hedgehog grumbled about how he was too old for something as pointless as school as he held his books for the first class of the day in his arms. A black shoulder sling backpack with red lines running along its pockets matched perfectly with his fur as his crimson eyes investigated his fellow peers. The laughter of students filled the air along with BO from the freshmen and the subtle taste of anxiety to blend in with it. The white hallways gleamed from the artificial lights above his head and bland, gray colored lockers lined the walls on either side.

When seeing a familiar face in the crowd, Shadow scowled. "Faker," he greeted the famous Sonic the hedgehog as the blue blur came up to him. They both parked to the left-hand side of the hallway to prevent the flow of traffic from stopping.

Sonic winked at a few girls that were glancing over at them, his emerald green eyes glowing in the lights from above. A playful grin was on his face and the girls squealed to each other quietly at having him recognize their existence. Shadow rolled his eyes as the blue blur turned his focus back to him. "What's up, Shads?" He asked, rubbing his nose with one hand and holding a math book in the other.

"Do you have any idea why we're trapped here?" Shadow asked seriously. "We're considered heroes to various extents, meant to be out saving the world or working for GUN. We're not meant to be locked up in this… school." Here, Shadow squinted and glanced to his left to notice the group of girls staring at him now. "Not to mention I'm too old for this kind of childish behavior. I am over fifty years old and I will not put up with such nonsensical—."

"Yeah, I know, it's a bit ridiculous." Sonic agreed, cutting him off by raising a hand. "But it looks good for our image as Sonic heroes."

Shadow stared at Sonic like he asked him to eat his left shoe. When did image ever matter to him?

"Anyways," Sonic continued. "Did you hear about the new girl?"

Shadow's eyes narrowed. "New girl?" Why would he care about a new girl? How did Sonic hear about a new girl at the beginning of the day before school had even started? How did this make any sense whatsoever?

"Yeah, apparently she's a foreigner, some princess or something." Sonic said with a shrug. "Princess… what was her name… princess…? Eh, we'll figure it out."

"Hmph," Shadow huffed, his lack of interest obvious.

The ringing of the first bell echoed around the hallway, causing both hedgehogs to look up at the speakers. The bell sounded like the cheery chime of an airplane when the seatbelt sign gets turned on. Shadow looked to Sonic as Sonic grinned. "Ready for math?" The blue blur asked.

"I am ready for the sweet release of death to take me instead." Shadow replied bluntly.

Whether Sonic heard Shadow or not was a mystery itself as Sonic quickly moved into the nearby classroom for their first period. Shadow rolled his eyes and followed. The crowd now parted around him like he was the plague itself.

The whispering of fangirls over his very existence rang in his ears as he walked into the dimly lit room. There was a teacher in the front that looked like a mongoose who was setting up for the day by pulling several papers from a black brief case on top of the desk in the corner of the room. As he stood, he straightened his suit and the glasses that were on the bridge of his quivering nose.

Sonic was sitting in the back of the classroom, by the door leading into the room, with Amy Rose sitting next to him. The pink hedgehog was leaning over onto Sonic's desk from her seat, failing at getting the attention of the blue blur. Tails Prower sat in front of Sonic, but was instead of facing the front of the classroom, he had turned around in his seat to face Sonic. The twin tailed fox and hedgehog were both busy looking over notes for a new jet plane Tails was wanting to build when he wasn't suffering here.

Shadow grumpily took an empty seat next to Sonic. Rather sit with the faker than the weird kid who would continuously try to make Shadow play some lame card game. He wasn't even surprised that Tails or Amy, who were both not even old enough to be in high school, were there. Tails had probably skipped several grades to make it here and Amy presumably snuck her way in, posing to be the same age as Sonic as she always did.

The room was bustling with students who were pulling books and notebooks out of their backpacks as class begun. Shadow put his face down on the desk slowly. What was the point of being here? He didn't care for his image. This was going to be a miserable experience.

"Class," The mongoose suddenly said and the classroom quickly quieted down to hear what he was going to say. "I am happy to announce that we have a new student who will be learning with us until further notice. You're welcome to come in now!" He turned his attention to the back of the room and everyone followed suit except Shadow.

When the classroom's eyes fell on the new student, all looked in awe (or jealousy) at a deep purple hedgehog with glimmering electric blue highlights in her spines and fur, and also at the stunning nine fox tails that gently swished behind her. Twin antlers towered above her head, giving her height over all others in the room, a superiority most sensed but had no quarrel submitting to. An elegant shimmery white top hung around her willowy form, the left sleeve hanging off her shoulder, showing a cute star-shaped birthmark to whoever was behind her. Black skinny jeans revealed how anorexically thin she was, and golden, high heeled boots adorned her feet. A golden locket with an exotic symbol on it hung around her neck, emanating a power they all could feel. Most captivating of all were her hypnotic, soul-piercing eyes that seemed to dance with the flames they were colored after, a fire that burned deep within her in a passion none other could possess, alerting them all of the loyal friend they could make, or the deadly enemy. Yet in them they could all see the kindness belonging only to a princess, and a magnetic grace and gentility. Hearts stopped at her mesmerizing smile, pearly white teeth gleaming as her gorgeous face filled with an undeniable good nature and faint humor, though her cheeks colored at all the attention.

"I'm in love." Sonic breathed.

Shadow lifted his head to slowly look over at Sonic, then took his turn to look back at the new girl. When he saw just a weird looking purple hedgehog/fox (is that a deer too?) hybrid, he rolled his eyes and focused his attention back to the front of the classroom.

"Can you tell us your name please?" The teacher asked, straightening the glasses on the bridge of his nose again. He was in as much awe as the majority of the class was by her graceful appearance.

"My name cannot be spoken by mortals." The girl said as she brushed away some of the curls that were covering her face. Her voice sounded like a cool ocean breeze on a hot summer afternoon. She stood up proudly to show all she was not that embarrassed by the attention that she effortlessly absorbed.

Shadow looked back again to give her a hard stare to show her how ridiculous she sounded. "I am an immortal."

"And neither can you! But you can call me… Mia." The elegant Mia said as she hid her hands shyly behind her back.

Shadow rolled his eyes again as Sonic's eyes bulged out at her existence.

"There's an empty seat next to Shadow, you can sit there if you'd like to Mia." The teacher said.

"Of course!" Mia replied as she moved gracefully into her seat next to Shadow. She was smiling kindly at all those who stared at her in their awe or jealousy. "Thank you ever so much!"

Shadow suddenly wished the card weirdo had tried to sit next to him.

"Alright, now let's start the class." The teacher said, turning his attention to the whiteboard behind him. He uncapped a black marker and started rambling on about some algebraic equation that he assured the class that they were going to use for the rest of their lives. The rest of the class didn't even seem to notice he was beginning the lesson though, they were too busy being captivated by Mia.

"Who does she think she is?" Amy hissed to Sonic and Tails, and Shadow couldn't help but overhear her. At least he wasn't the only one that seemed to think this Mia whatever was ridiculous. "She just walks in here and… well… just steals the attention like that! It's not fair!"

"Are you kidding? She's perfect!" Sonic whispered wistfully as he looked past Shadow's head to stare at Mia as she got her books out for the class. "I want to marry that girl, and we're going to live in a happy home together forever with a few kids of our own and they'll be as beautiful as she is..."

"Sonic you're a sophomore." Shadow said to him bluntly.

"An angel from heaven."

"Sonic, you aren't capable to slow down long enough to ever even consider to have a stable relationship in your life. You also just met her just two minutes ago."

"I'll slow down for her…"

Shadow face palmed and looked to Tails for backup, but the twin tailed fox was in no better state than Sonic was. Amy, on the other hand, looked like she was about to explode from all the attention Sonic gave the new girl. At least one person was on his side about this ridiculous Mia. He'd have to consult with his real "friend" about this later though since this group was full of nothing but baffling hog monkeys.

The Ultimate Lifeform looked to this Mia out of the corner of his eye as she obliviously took notes for the class. Her pencil moved effortlessly across the notebook's page and her handwriting was unmistakably perfect.

Shadow looked away when she glanced to him and he scowled angrily to the front of the classroom.

* * *

"Rouge, what is the meaning of this?"

"Oh come on, Shadow, don't you think it's pretty? Princess Mia gave it to me in geography! She's the sweetest girl ever." Rouge said as she admired a large diamond ring on her finger. She looked into the. clean cut sides of the gem to stare at her reflection through them

Shadow couldn't stop the look of disgust appearing on his face as he watched Rouge continue to admire the ring. He shook his head as Sonic came over with Tails and Amy right on his heels. When Shadow turned his focus onto the blue blur, all he could see was that Amy looked like she was about to explode from jealousy still.

"What do you want, Sonic?" Shadow spat out in annoyance.

"Have you seen Mia? Is she over here?" Sonic asked as he looked around for her. "I was going to ask her to sit with us today for lunch."

"I don't know what you see in her." Amy said, trying to reason with Sonic. "She's no better than anyone else."

"I don't know about that, Amy." Tails said. "In Chemistry class she was able to do a lab faster than anyone else was. She must be a genius, even I can't do that!"

Shadow squinted at Tails, yes he could. Wait, why were they even here anyways? They weren't "friends". He was about to make this comment when Sonic suddenly grabbed Tails' arm. "There she is! There she is! Over there!"

Shadow started to walk in the opposite direction they were looking, but was stopped when Rouge suddenly grabbing his arm. "Just give her a chance, Shads." She urged. "She really is a nice gal."

"Fine, but don't expect me to stay for long." Shadow huffed, realizing that Rouge was going to stop him whether he wanted her to or not. He forced his attention on the new girl that was rapidly approaching them.

"Hello," Princess Mia greeted as she reached them. Her quills blew in the peaceful wind that magically arrived with her as her fire colored eyes burned into their souls. "Do you mind if I sit with you today?"

"Of course! We don't mind!" Sonic said, trying and failing to hide his giddy grin that formed from the fact that she was talking to them. Everyone in the group, minus Shadow and Amy, quickly pulled out lunches from their backpacks and sat on the grassy field outside of the school underneath a large oak tree.

Mia sat down next to Sonic and beamed at all of them. "I'm Mia." She told them.

"We know. We were all in class with you." Shadow stated bluntly as ever, then fell quiet when almost everyone glared at him to shut up.

Amy moved over slowly to sit by to Shadow, silently telling him that they were joining forces over a common enemy that they shared. She glared at Mia as Shadow unwillingly sat down next to her to see where this mess would end up. "What are your names?" Mia asked, weakly smiling to Shadow to apologize.

Shadow only squinted in return.

"I'm Sonic!" Sonic proudly stated before anyone else got a chance to even open their mouths. "This is my best friend, Tails!" He wrapped his arm around Tails' shoulders and gave the fox a noogie, resulting in the fox to squirm and laugh. "Over there with the new diamond ring is Rouge…"

"Oh, I remember you! Hello Rouge!" Mia greeted. "I'm so glad you like the ring!"

"Lovely to see you again, dear. This ring is too gorgeous not to love." Rouge said as she waved a hand to Mia and both smiled fondly at each other.

Sonic coughed to get Mia's attention again and continued when he had it. "Over there pouting is Amy and the grump next to her is Shadow."

Amy huffed angrily at this and Shadow rolled his eyes for the millionth time that day.

"Lovely to meet you all!" Mia said happily. An aura of contentment seemed to suddenly surround her and with it, it made almost made everyone relax.

"So what brings you to Chaos High?" Sonic asked as he pulled a chili dog out of his lunch box. "I mean sure the heroes of Mobius are here, but there had to be a reason."

"I can't say. It's supposed to be a secret." Mia's voice was full of such sorrow as she looked at her hands in her lap.

"Oh c'mon!" Sonic said as he put a hand on hers. Shadow tried very hard not to feel sick at the miserable sight of faker being desperate for her. "You can trust us!"

"We met five minutes ago." Shadow reminded the group. What kind of person was honestly going to just spill their entire life story on how they got here within minutes of meeting them? Especially if it was supposed to be a secret! Honestly that was ridiculous, nobody ever did that.

Shadow got glares once again for the comment but all faces turned to pity as Mia suddenly spoke up. "I was born a princess to the greatest generation of royals in the kingdom of Aivoneg. Everything was perfect, just me, my loving parents, and my dear little twin siblings. The only downer to the family was my evil Uncle Namgge. Think of the most despicable, selfish, cruel, immoral person you know, multiply that by about a thousand, and that's him. My parents were too nice, however, and despite his evil ways they allowed him to live at the palace with us."

All but Shadow leaned forward to hear the rest of the story, enraptured. Mia's gaze rested on her delicate fingers laced in her lap. "About a year ago, my uncle became very quiet and reclusive. My parents began to worry, but they could not foresee what was to come. A few months ago, he… h-he killed them, and my siblings. He s-sent assassins after us and they killed them r-r-right in f-front of m-me..."

Sonic's hand on hers squeezed comfortingly as the other went to her shoulder. "Hey, you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to." Which, to Shadow, she should not. Wasn't this supposed to be a secret?

"N-No, I can, it's okay," she insisted, blinking back tears. Whispers were passed in admiration of her strength before she continued. "I scared the assassins off, but, I-I couldn't save them… I knelt in their blood, by my mother, the only one still conscious, and she gave me this necklace." The hand not held by Sonic rose and clutched the golden locket. "A-And… with her dying breath, coughing up blood, sh-she told me… you can't live without love." At this, her gaze rose and rested on Shadow. He stared back unaffected.

Mia sniffed and wiped away a tear. "My uncle, he wanted the kingdom, and with my parents gone that meant I was to inherit it. On the day of my coronation, he sent more assassins after me, the most deadly he had. They almost got me…" She turned so her back was to them, and pushed the sleeve off of her shoulder that didn't bare the birthmark, revealing a thin, four inch scar moving from her shoulder to her spine. Everyone was taken back with awe and admiration, for the scar was a sign of the great strength she possessed to survive. Mia moved her sleeve back into place and turned to face them again. "They almost killed me, but, my first love was there, and he helped me escape. He locked himself in a room with the assassins, and…" The crystal tears that had been threatening themselves finally spilled over, leaking down her face as she sobbed, a sight so tragic and beautiful that many people around them stopped to watch, until a glare from Sonic made them move on. His attention quickly returned to Mia. "I knew his death would be slow and painful at their hands… a-and then they'd come after me anyway, and, I didn't have a choice, but I-I st-still… c-can never f-forgive mys-self…"

With an encouraging squeeze from Sonic's returning hand to her own, she broke. "I blew up the room he and the assassins were in to stop them!"

A collective gasp came from the group as Mia broke into sobs. Faces of horror and sympathy were all around, as well as one of indifference. Tails placed a hand on her shoulder. "I'm so sorry… I couldn't imagine ever doing that."

As Shadow attempted to stare the foolishness out of Tails, Mia smiled gratefully to the fox, with his encouragement she found the strength to finish. "My uncle took over, and now I'm here hiding until I can find a way to take back my kingdom."

Only Shadow thought that would have sufficed as her story to begin with (and still revealed too much), but no one else was bothered. Sonic proudly declared, "Lucky for you, you are in the presence of Mobius's greatest heroes!"

"Really?" Mia sniffed wiping the tears from her hopeful eyes.

Shadow sighed in disbelief at Sonic's eagerness to randomly help someone he met only a few hours earlier, but at least he always did this. The blue blur raised a fist determinedly, grinning to the others in the small group. "Yeah! We'll help you figure out how to get your kingdom back from your evil uncle together!"

Tails and Rouge both nodded eagerly to agree and even Amy looked interested in helping Mia. Shadow, on the other hand, decided that the grass was much more interesting to look at instead.

"Thank you," Mia said, clasping her hands together. Her eyes lifted up to the bright blue sky above. A beaming smile slowly stretched across her face as if she could see her grateful, deceased family up there. "Thank you all."


	2. Chapter 3

The next day wasn't much better. Shadow rubbed his temples as he listened to Sonic ramble on and on about how he and Mia went out for ice cream together with Tails yesterday. "She's perfect!" Sonic was saying, sighing wistfully. "I have never met anyone so elegant and graceful in my entire life."

Amy huffed next to Shadow, clearly as annoyed with Mia as he felt.

"She's so smart too!" Tails said, nodding excitedly in agreement. "She was looking at my plans for the X-Tornado and told me she built a ship just like that but better when she was just a kid!"

"Tails," Amy said with a scowl. "You are a kid, you can do just as good."

"Well, yeah, but she must've been smarter than me when she was a kid!"

Amy looked to Shadow for backup on how ridiculous Tails was being about this, but Shadow decided to avoid the conversation entirely by determining the air next to Sonic's head was much more fascinating. When she got no response from Shadow, she looked to Tails again before babbling on about how Mia wasn't _that_ amazing. This of course resulted in a yelling argument between herself and Sonic.

Shadow's interest in the air next to Sonic's head suddenly ended though when a scent came drifting down through the hallways. Sonic and Amy both froze in their argument before sniffing at the air in confusion. "Is that…" Amy said slowly. "Rose petals mixed with cherry blossoms?"

The hallways grew silent as everyone sniffed at the air, the aroma of the rose petals and cherry blossoms seemed to have magically cured Amy and Sonic's argument. A peaceful feeling settled in and seemed to touch even the darkest of souls (except Shadow the edgy hedgehog of course). The air suddenly glimmered and a hue of pink glowed in the artificial lights above.

The glass, front doors of the school suddenly opened and the sun shone down perfectly on the back of elegant Princess Mia of Aivoneg's head as she walked in. She brushed some of the electric blue curls out of her face and showed an enchanting smile to all. She made her way over to Sonic and the gang, her nine tails brushing against the ground as she held her schoolbooks. Sonic was trying not to drool as Tails fixed his fur and smiled. Amy on the other hand rolled her eyes. "Hey guys," Mia said to her new bestest friends. "Ready for class?"

"Can you believe this girl?" Amy muttered to Shadow then glanced over, surprised to see he wasn't even there.

The ebony hedgehog had known what was going on as soon as Mia's scent started drifting through the school halls and quickly made his exit into the math room. No way was he going to put up with Mia this early in the morning. Shadow rubbed his temples again and prayed for the day to end swiftly and silently. Did he have to put up with Princess Perfect from wherever until the end of the year? Please heavens no. He silently wondered if he could give Mia's evil uncle a tip on where she was hiding when the teacher walked into the room.

It was when his eyes rested on the teacher that Shadow's blood suddenly ran cold. The mongoose teacher from yesterday was gone, replaced now by a metallic looking mongoose. Its face had a poorly made designed, only distinctly looking like a Mongoose. The… _thing_ didn't even have real clothes on, just clothes scratched into the metal coating that covered its entire body. Shadow gripped the edges of his desk and gritted his teeth when he could hear the whirl of machinery coming from underneath the metal. A robot! The teacher was now a robot!

"GOOD MORNING CLASS." Came the monotone, ever so familiar robotic voice that emitted from a small hole where its mouth was supposed to be at. Shadow looked quickly at the other students in the room to see if they noticed the teacher being a _robot_ , but all of them were too busy gathering in the back of the class to catch sight of Princess Mia through the door. "TODAY WE WILL BE LEARNING HOW TO DO THE GEOMETRYS BY FINDING THE AREA IN PYRAMIDS AND OTHER RANDOM OBJECTS."

This had to be some part of an infamous plan created by the evil Doctor Eggman himself. Only he was smart enough to build robots that could somehow impenetrate a high school. Shadow looked quickly to the door for Sonic. Where was the faker?! He'd be all over this. The thought of Eggman having another life threatening plan was hopefully serious enough to pull him out of his pointless infatuation with Mia.

Yet, Shadow couldn't help but feel a flair of anger to see Sonic was already coming into the room when he looked back, paying the robot in the front no mind. He was too busy telling a joke to the perfect Mia as she laughed a laugh that sounded like the tinkling of Christmas bells. Sonic took his seat next to him and Mia smiled bashfully at Shadow as she took her own seat, but the smile also held confidence at the same time somehow.

Shadow gave Mia an unamused look back before looking to Sonic. Hopefully now Sonic would see the robot? But no, he was still too busy with Mia. He was looking across Shadow's desk to smile dreamily at Mia. Lovesick fool. Shadow swore that he would never experience love if he was going to be this bad.

Shadow leaned across the desk to force Sonic to look at him. "Faker," He hissed, "Are you blind or do you not see the robot in the front of the room?"

"I was always blind, Shadow." Sonic whispered as he tried looking around him to see Mia, "But now I see that I shouldn't run from my problems anymore, especially with Mia here for me."

Shadow dropped his head so his face smacked against the desk and Amy scowled. "Sonic, Shadow's right, there's a robot…! It could be Eggman's! Oh never mind, Tails, you see it right?"

"Huh?" Tails looked up from his notes to look at the robot then looked back to Amy. "It looks like a perfectly normal mongoose to me!"

Amy sighed angrily and Shadow spent the rest of the class being grateful that he had Amy for once.

* * *

"I don't know what you're talking about, Shadow." Rouge said with a shrug as she played around with colorful string in her hands. She sat on outside the grassy fields for lunch once again and she stared absentmindedly into the blue sky above as she worked with her fingers. "I didn't notice anything wrong with any of the teachers today. They all seemed like perfectly normal, boring people like all teachers are."

"But they were all robots! Did you not see their metallic coats? You're a bat aren't you, Rouge? Didn't you at least _hear_ the machinery whirring inside of them?! Or those robotic voices they were using?" Shadow demanded as he paced in front of her angrily. "Eggman's up to something and I intend on finding out what he's up to! I'm not the only one seeing robots either!"

Rouge sighed and shook her head in disbelief, knowing better than to try to convince Shadow otherwise. After a moment of continued pacing, Shadow suddenly stopped and scowled at the colorful string in Rouge's hands. "What are you doing?"

"I'm making a friendship bracelet for me and Mia." Rouge smiled as she spoke before showing Shadow the forming bracelet. "I'm using our favorite colors. They clash so well together don't you think?"

Shadow couldn't help but sneer at Rouge. "What, are the two of you going out to steal jewelry next?"

"Ugh!" Rouge said angrily, tearing her gaze away from Shadow. "Why do you have to hate her so much? She hasn't done anything to you!"

"Ever since she's showed her face around here, everything has been going wrong!" Shadow retorted, folding his arms as he stood in front of Rouge. "Every teacher in this miserable school has become a robot, Sonic the hedgehog and Tails Prower act as if Mia is a Goddess, and you suddenly act like she is your best friend. You met her yesterday, Rouge!"

"So what?" Rouge turned her back on him, signifying that the conversation was over even if she had asked him a question.

Shadow threw his hands into the air in disbelief and left quickly when he saw Sonic and the others coming in the distance with Mia in tow.

* * *

Gym Class was usually an exciting place for Shadow, since it gave him the chance to "accidently" punch Sonic in the face, but with Mia around, it was a nightmare. The teacher yesterday was convinced by Mia's good nature that violence was wrong and they got rid of their boxing segment. Yet boxing wasn't the only thing cut out; games like dodge ball, capture the flag, and even four square were deemed too violet to play as well.

Although today's robot teacher seemed to not be affected by Mia's gentle nature and demanded them to spar together with boxing gloves on anyways. This brought a smug smirk to Shadow's face as he silently wished he could get a chance to fight against Mia. Girl or not, he wanted to show everyone she wasn't as perfect as everyone thought.

Except the stars seemed to work for and against his favor. While he wasn't the one who was destined to spar with Mia today, he felt great joy in knowing that it was instead Knuckles the Echidna she had to face. Shadow stood on top of the school's indoor blue and red bleachers to look at the white mat Mia was on, not even caring to pay attention to the two mats on either side. He had to see how _this_ was going to end.

"Why wasn't it me she got to spar with?" Sonic asked the universe nearby. "Knuckles is going to beat her senseless…! And how come she got put with a guy? Why not another girl like Amy?"

"Those boxing gloves are completely harmless though, it's going to be falling over that'll hurt more, Sonic." Tails said, trying to reassure his friend, but he looked just as nervous. "Even punches from Knuckles should be harmless! Not to mention they won't actually be _punching_ each other, it'll just be hitting each other's gloves."

Shadow squinted as Mia lifted her large, red gloves and looked to Knuckles. Her antlers made her appear bigger and taller as Knuckles lifted his own pair of gloves for her to punch at. Knuckles looked almost bored, as if expecting her to not even make a noticeable impact against his gloves.

Determination flickered across Mia's face as she prepared to attack. Before anyone could react, she suddenly lashed out with one of her gloves and threw Knuckle's glove back with enough force that it smacked into his own face. Sonic and Tails erupted into ecstatic cheers next to Shadow as Mia, not seeming to realize this wasn't a real fight, jumped into the air. Her tails spinning behind her, she threw a leg out and the front of her high heeled boot smashed into the side of Knuckle's face.

The echidna went flying and crashed painfully into the wall, hard enough to make a dent. The room was silent to watch in awe as Knuckles stumbled to his feet, rubbing his head. Mia put her hands on her hips after she brushed aside more curls. "One for Mia, zero for the echidna!" She giggled and gave Knuckles a thumbs up with her giant gloves.

"I'm going to marry that girl." Sonic said wistfully.

"I guess if all the echidnas were as easy to beat as you, then they deserved to die out." Mia added, confidently smiling to Knuckles. The room cheered at Mia's might and grace, seeming to not even hear what she said. Shadow felt his eyes widened as he stared at Mia, did she truly mean that?!

Knuckle's face turned red, if it was even possible, and gritted his teeth angrily before charging at Mia. He raised his fists as he got closer to her. "What did you say?!" He roared as he threw a punch at full force at her. Mia easily ducked to avoid the punch, causing his fist to fly in between her antlers.

That speed! Shadow's eyes widened in shock as Mia easily slid behind Knuckles and kicked him in the back. Knuckles went sprawling onto the white mat and rolled quickly back to his feet. He faced Mia and his fists went flying as he tried to hit her, except none of his attacks seemed to hit Mia ever.

"Wow! She must be just as fast as I am with that speed!" Sonic complimented, looking highly impressed. Shadow gritted his teeth and glared at Sonic to shut up silently. Did he not hear her making fun of his friend?! His friend's people?!

Mia suddenly grabbed one of Knuckle's fist that was flying at her and with his force, threw him effortlessly over her head. He flew over her antlers and hedgehog quills before smashing painfully into the concrete ground next to the mat with a sickening crack that echoed through the gym. He laid there motionlessly, the only sign that said he was still alive was the occasional groan of pain that escaped his lips. How Mia did that with barely any muscle in her arms was beyond anyone's comprehension.

After Knuckles had hit the ground and a silence had passed, the class suddenly burst into cheers. All were applauding at Mia's excellent strength in defeating the echidna. They laughed at Knuckle's failed attempt to beat her and all were amazed by her pure skills at being stronger than he was and faster than Sonic. Their cheering echoed loudly off the walls.

For the first and definitely the last time in his entire existence, Shadow felt concern for the red echidna. He tried to lift his head as high as he could over the cheering crowd without making it obvious he was showing interest in him. Yet before he could clearly see Knuckles, Mia offered a hand down to the echidna and pulled him to his feet.

"Sorry about that, I guess you were right!" Knuckles said bashfully as he rubbed the back of his head. He seemed to have completely forgotten the insult she made against his ancestors. "I am pretty weak in comparison to you, Mia!"

Mia laughed her Christmas bell laugh, putting a hand to her lips and smiling innocently. "Oh it's fine, Knuckles. You put up a good fight though!"

"Wowa! You actually know my name?"

"Of course! Sonic was telling me all about you yesterday when we had ice cream together with Tails!" Mia said before waving up to Sonic and Tails as she took off her boxing gloves. She said farewell to Knuckles and in a flash of light she suddenly seemed to have teleported next to the waving duo.

"Wha—?!" Sonic said, looking surprised to Mia. "Was that Chaos Control you just used to get up here?"

"Oh, yeah, did I forget to tell you? I can use Chaos Control. It ran in my family… or at least… it did…" Mia looked pitifully to the ground as she said this, a hand touching the golden locket around her neck.

"Nono! Don't cry!" Sonic said, waving his hands around frantically to Mia to distract her from her ever so depressing history.

Shadow's eyes narrowed into an intense glare as he stared at Mia. Just who was this girl? When she turned to look up at him, he refused to look away, his intense scowl burning into her as he tried to resist a snarl from forming on his lips. He hated her.


	3. Chapter 17

Shadow silently prayed that the ever so irritating Princess Mia would soon leave Chaos High forever as he walked into math class late the next day. He was late on purpose, it meant he was able to avoid dealing with Mia first thing in the morning. If he continued this and was lucky, they'd kick him out of school so he'd never see the _perfect,_ psycho Princess Mia and her stupid smelling perfume ever again.

When Shadow walked into math class, the first thing he saw was Sonic stealing his seat to sit next to Mia. The robot teacher was still there in the front of the room, directing their lesson in its robotic voice and not seeming to notice Shadow's late entry. The rest of the class still didn't even seem to notice the robot's existence or his either. Shadow took this blessed opportunity to silently take Sonic's old seat. Rather sit here than next to Mia.

"Hi Shadow!" He heard a voice whisper and looked over to glare at Mia as she waved to him. Tails, Sonic, and Amy waved to him too to express their welcome, surprisingly, and even Amy looked suspiciously cheerful.

Shadow turned his focus onto the pink hedgehog and watched Amy as she played with colorful string… suspiciously it looked like she was doing the same thing that Rouge was doing yesterday at lunch. Oh no. He tried to look inconspicuous as he stared at the string, trying to decide if Amy was making a friendship bracelet or not. Was it for Mia? No, no, it couldn't be. She hated her as much as he did, right?

Amy seemed to notice him looking anyways and proudly presented a friendship bracelet that looked almost _exactly_ like Rouge's. Shadow stared at Amy in confusion, praying that it wasn't for Mia. Anyone but Mia.

"It's for Mia…!" Amy whispered to him as the robot teacher continued in the front of the room.

Shadow felt like the air sucked out of him. Amy?! Friends with Mia?! The world was certainly coming to an end any day now. Eggman was going to take over tomorrow too at this rate, which couldn't be far from the truth seeing how robots invaded the school without anyone noticing still.

"We talked things through yesterday." Amy explained quietly like Shadow actually cared for these girlish things. "She's really a nice girl if you just sit down and talk with her. I guess I was just being jealous. As we talked, I realized I was the one in the wrong for the _entire_ situation. I hope she likes this friendship bracelet I'm making to ask for her forgiveness! It's with our favorite colors!"

Wait 'till Rouge found out about this.

"She's also not interested in Sonic too." Amy added, drawing Shadow's attention back to her. "Which means he's still all mine!"

Shadow rolled his eyes quickly and hoped she didn't notice, which thankfully she didn't seem to as she continued.

"You know who she is interested in though?" Amy smirked proudly as she looked to Shadow, her fingers elegantly making the knots for the bracelet.

This had to be interesting. He was betting on Tails. He glanced to the fox and was surprised to see he was actually paying some attention to the teacher (he kept glancing hopefully back to Mia though) and seemed to have no interest in listening to Amy's conversation at all. Then again, there was the possibility that it could be Knuckles too, seeing how yesterday ended with Knuckles drooling over Mia's existence with Sonic.

"It's you, Shadow!"

Shadow whipped his head to stare at Amy and his eyes widened in absolute horror. Mia was interested in _him_. _"Me?!"_ He hissed to her in shock. Was she _oblivious_ to him glaring at her yesterday?!

"Yes! You!" Amy squealed quietly. "Everyone knows that she's totally crushing on you too! And you know, as she says: 'you can't live without love'! You two are going to be so cute together!"

Shadow glanced to Sonic as the blue blur's focus was to stare pitifully at Mia before looking back to Amy like she had dropped down from the surface of Mars itself. Mia? Interested in _him_?! He had no care for her at all! If anything, he _hated_ her! Why or how did she even like him? He hadn't even had a conversation with her yet, much less known her for more than a week!

The ebony hedgehog slowly forced his focus away from Amy to look to Mia. When he looked over and saw that Mia was already staring at him, he felt disgust flare up inside of him angrily. Before he could react or do anything though, she quickly looked away with blushing cheeks. Oh no. It was true. Not _her_. Anyone but her. He would rather go find a way to bring Maria back to life and live with the accusations of bestiality than this!

The Ultimate Lifeform slowly looked to the ceiling above and silently begged the universe for Eggman himself to come and put him back in suspended animation. He wouldn't even struggle to resist. Maybe when he woke up again, the rest of Mia's bloodline would finally be dead because of her evil uncle.

Ironically, Eggman's voice suddenly came on over the speaker. _"Good afternoon students."_ Eggman said, and Shadow couldn't believe his ironic, dumb luck. Was this truly a blessing from the gods? Were they giving him pity for Mia's insanity? Wait. Why was Eggman on the announcements? _"As you know, tomorrow is Saturday, but since I am the new principal, you're going to have to come to school anyways because I say so. I'm the principal now. Ba hah hah hah—"_ A click was heard that cut Eggman off in mid-evil laugh.

Just kidding, the gods were instead mocking him. With a glance around the room, Shadow was even more disappointed to realize that none of the other students were even phased by Eggman's voice over the intercom. Actually, none of them looked upset about having to come to school on a _Saturday_. Not even Sonic did so much as blink at the sound of Eggman's nasally voice.

Shadow scowled and his hands slowly balled into tight fists. Well, if the blue blur himself wasn't going to do anything about Eggman, it looked like it was up to him. Once he figured out what Eggman was up to and stopped his plans from creating the Eggman Empire for GUN's sake, perhaps he could offer himself up to Eggman so he could be put back into suspended animation.

He glanced to Princess Mia out of the corner of his eye and glared at her. If this went well, he wouldn't have to put up with her for much longer.

* * *

Instead of going out to the field with the other students for lunchtime, Shadow instead stayed in the dark hallways, stalking the robotic teachers as they moved in single file into the teacher's lounge for lunch. He had to figure out what Eggman was up to. Why would he want students to come to school on a Saturday? What good would that do for him? When was his evil plan going to be put into action so he could start counting down how many days left he had to deal with Mia?

Stealthily, he slinked past the door into the teacher's lounge and ducked behind a nearby counter quickly when several robotic heads turned to see who was coming in late. Shadow held his breath and listened intently.

"Pay the door no heed!" The familiar voice of Eggman himself said and Shadow heard the robot's heads turn to look back at the speaker. "It's probably broken, schools don't get enough money anyways to fix meaningless things like doors. Have you seen the thirty year late textbooks? And besides, it's not like we need to worry about anyone overhearing us here!"

Shadow gritted his teeth as he recognized Eggman's voice and stayed perfectly still against the counter. Any sudden movements and the robots would pounce and everything would be over for him. Then again… maybe not, well for everyone else yes, but at least Shadow would be spared for never seeing Mia's face again.

"I'm surprised my plan is working so well!" Eggman said happily to his robots. "With that new girl here, it's like nobody can pay attention to me coming in and taking over! It's a breeze taking over this high school and with tomorrow, we'll move on to the rest of the world!"

Of course he was aiming for the world, but why start at a high school? Shadow frowned thoughtfully to himself before the answer came easily. Sonic. Sonic was here. If Sonic was out of the way, then nobody could stop him from taking over the world. So if he controlled the school, he controlled Sonic's image, and therefore controlled Sonic! Not like it mattered anyways though, Sonic wasn't even trying to fight, he was too busy with Mia.

"We'll fire the weapon of destruction tomorrow, tell them we've got Sonic and that we'll kill him or something to make them listen to us, and the world is as good as ours." Eggman smugly stated to the robot teachers. "I should've thought of this ages ago, really. Cheers for me!"

The robots made robotic cheers at his command, all praising their master and his brilliant genius.

Shadow suddenly wondered how different Eggman would've turned out if people were actually his friends when he was younger. Before he could think on it for long though, Eggman spoke again. "By this time tomorrow, the world will be as good as mine! Err… ours… I did promise… anyways! Good as ours! You are dismissed."

There was the sound of chairs moving and Shadow stayed in the shadows of the countertop to try to be as invisible as possible as the robots moved out the door past him in a single file line. It disturbed Shadow to see how they all moved in perfect sync; how emotionless they all were. Not like he could complain though, seeing how he never expressed many emotions either.

Shadow looked at the plastic tile floor beneath him, thinking quickly. Tomorrow. He had to figure out how to stop Eggman and save the world by tomorrow. He could do it. He had run on tighter schedules before. The only problem was what did he mean by saying that the 'world was as good as ours'? Who was the other person in his plan?

The Ultimate Lifeform felt anger once again as a possible answer came to mind: Mia. Of course! It had to be! But he had no proof. As far as he knew, he was jumping to conclusions, but everything fit perfectly. Her convenient timing of arrival, how no one could see the robot teachers but him and Amy who just happened to hate her at the time, the way she effortlessly distracted everyone from Eggman… it had to be her.

Again though, he had no proof, he'd have to wait and see until tomorrow.

But it was totally Mia.

* * *

With the ring of the final bell, Shadow practically flew towards the parking lot. He shoved his way past other students as they all talked about Mia excitedly to each other. Eggman's voice came over the speaker once more to remind everyone to come tomorrow (without any complaint from the students once again) and robots roamed the halls. Shadow felt his stomach drop when he saw Mia standing by the front doors. Mia's fiery eyes were gazing over the crowd and she was pursing her lips. Clearly she was looking for someone.

Someone like a familiar ebony hedgehog who she may or may not be totally crushing on.

Nope.

Shadow turned and started to walk towards the back doors of the school. He didn't have time for Mia. He had to get home and plan on how to defeat Eggman by himself tomorrow. There wasn't any time to waste with her.

"Shadow!" A voice cried behind him and Shadow cringed. It looked like she managed to spot him in the crowd after all. He slowly turned on his heels to scowl at Mia as she ran up to him. Her face was bright with hope and beauty as she brushed her electric blue curls from her purple furred face. "I-I was wondering if you maybe wanted to go out today and stop for ice cream or something…"

"No thanks." Shadow said bluntly before turning his back on her and started walking off.

Mia wasn't going to have any of that. A pout formed on her face as she watched him go for a second. Determination replaced the pout quickly and she tightened her grip on her green and purple backpack. She followed him, her heels clicking against the floor. "Well that's okay, maybe we can hang out after school tomorrow?"

"No thanks."

"Oh well… um… maybe we could… um…" Mia was struggling with words as she tapped her rainbow nails against her backpack. Electric blue embroidered designs ran down the straps as her nine tails swished behind her. Those walking past whispered to each other excitedly at how cute she was behaving. "We could…"

"No thanks."

"I didn't even say anything yet though!"

"I'm telling you, I'm not interested."

"But Shadow…!"

Shadow's scowl grew and he stopped to look at her. He noticed now that the hallway was silent as the few students that were still there were staring to see if Mia would get the boy of her dreams or not. "What?" Shadow asked dryly.

"I-I…" Mia's cheeks turned pink as she twirled her hair around one of her fingers. "I just wanted to spend some time with you… I mean I hardly see you and I wanted to see you…"

"I'm busy. Maybe when Eggman's not trying to take over the world." Shadow replied. With that, he turned away and continued towards the back doors. There they were, up ahead. He could see them now. Soon he'd be free and be able to focus on more important things like defeating Eggman and figuring out if Mia was secretly working for him or not.

"But… but Shadow!" Mia cried out behind him, her voice broke and she had to swallow audibly before continuing. "I love you!"

 _What the hell?_ Shadow had to actually stop walking at hearing this. How long had he known her? Three days now, right? He slowly looked back to her to see tears dripping down her face. The tears glistened in the lights as they fell from her cheeks down to the floor gracefully. Her eyes weren't even red, were those crocodile tears? Shadow squinted as he tried to analyze the situation silently. "Y-You can't live w-without lo-love, Shadow!" She sobbed.

Finally, Mia threw her hands over her eyes to conceal her beautiful tears before running away from him. Shadow was left alone to awkwardly deal with the glares everyone was giving him for turning down the most perfect girl in Chaos High.

* * *

 **A/N: Thanks to Chocolate-Chip Master and Issun the Wandering Writer for reviewing the last chapter!  
**

 **To the readers: How do you think this story will end? Next chapter will be out next week.**


	4. Chapter 142

**Dear Guest Reviewer John Who Doesn't Have an Account and Should Totally Get One:  
The title for chapter 17 is shown because of the fact that Mary Sue stories seem to go on for much longer than they probably should (as shown in this wonderful chapter 142). I may or may not be really snarky about these things.  
Thank you for thinking I am a good writer! This is a pleasure to hear and I hope you enjoy this chapter. I do like the idea you mentioned in your review.**

* * *

Shadow awoke early the next morning to the sound of the obnoxious alarm ringing in his ears. He quickly turned over in his bed and smashed his fist against the black box bitterly, causing the crack nearly splitting the alarm in half to grow bigger. He'd have to fix that later. With a yawn, he rolled onto his back in the plush bed and stared up the white ceiling above him. Today was the day.

After getting ready for the long day ahead of him, he reached into his closet and pulled out the Chaos Emerald that he had been hiding from Sonic. He stared at the red emerald in his hand, his grim expression staring back at him through its clean cut sides. Who would've thought that he was the one destined to save the world today because the famous Sonic the hedgehog and friends fell in love with the enemy?

Then again… he still wasn't sure if Princess Mia was behind this or not still. He had no proof besides his bitter conscious screaming that it was her. She may actually be just a weird girl running from her evil uncle and had just been at the wrong place at the wrong time.

He gripped the emerald tightly in his gloved hand and glanced to the door of his bedroom when he thought he heard a noise just outside. After several minutes of staring at it, Shadow shook his head. He silently reassured himself that he was paranoid for what was going to happen today.

When this was all said and done though, Shadow could go peacefully back into suspended animation to get away from Mia and school. It was a perfect win/win for him.

Shadow threw open the door of his bedroom and scrambled down the stairs inside his apartment building that sat outside of GUN's headquarters. Should he warn GUN about what will be happening today? No, they were practically useless in comparison to what he and Sonic could do most of the time anyways. Besides, knowing Eggman, GUN already knew what the mad genius was doing and was getting ready to counter it. Yet, if that was the case, why was it so… quiet? The neighbors weren't making a sound and none of the morning birds were singing yet despite the sun being up. Although, Shadow wasn't entirely sure about the sun part, considering that he always kept the blinds tightly closed to embrace the darkness.

Shadow threw on his black backpack and shoved the Chaos Emerald inside of it, grim determination pushing him towards the front door. He subconsciously rubbed the gold rings around his wrists as he came to a stop in front of it. There was much to be done today, could he even succeed?

The Chaos Emerald seemed to weigh heavily in his backpack as Shadow stared at the gold colored doorknob. There were two options for what he had to do today: either use the Chaos Emerald to see if it'd snap Sonic and the others to their senses, or just use the emerald to destroy the heart of the problem, Eggman himself. If Mia was somehow working with Eggman, she would be easy for him to get past since she had no effect on him, especially with a Chaos Emerald in hand.

Eggman was always a joke to fight against anyways. Of course he would succeed. This was going to be _too_ easy. Shadow smirked as he grabbed the doorknob and threw the door open. The plan was absolutely was fool proof with a Chaos Emerald on his side.

Yet the confidence within Shadow wavered when he found himself facing a dark gray sky outside. The smell of smoke was nearly suffocating and ash slowly fell from the sky like snowflakes. Shadow shivered not from cold, but from dread and confusion as he tried to look across the street to see GUN HQ; but there was so much ash falling, he wasn't able to see the tall building.

What was happening? He checked the time by leaning back inside his apartment to look at the clock on the wall. Maybe he was running late in the day so Eggman had already begun his plan, but no, it was still early. He even had an hour before school started. Closing the door behind him with confusion clear on his face, Shadow the hedgehog stepped out into the ashy horror land in front of him. His shoes left footprints in the fine layer of ash gathering on the ground as he squinted, trying to see the distance; but the ash was falling too thickly to see more than fifteen feet in front of him.

He looked up to the empty, ash ridden sky. There was a silence in the air that was almost unnerving. There was nothing but the ringing in his own ears. It was disturbingly like the calm before a storm. Where was all this ash coming from? Clearly from a lot of fire, yes, but where was the fire? He couldn't see any from here.

Shadow moved stealthily down the stairs outside of his apartment complex and out into the streets before quickly skating in the direction of Chaos High. Only one way to figure out what was going on now, and Eggman surely had the answer. The school was his best bet to find the evil genius too. The wind whistled in his ears as he skated, leaving tracks in the ash behind.

When he got closer to his destination, Shadow's eyes widened to see a bright, orange glow slowly forming against the falling ash around him. The sound of screams and cries for help that were echoing in the streets was loud enough for him to hear over the rushing wind, urging Shadow to skate faster. The temperature was starting to rise. Maybe from the school he could figure out where the fire was coming from and stop Eggman right there if he was at the school too… if only he could somehow fly and see through the thick wall of falling ash.

Turning around a sharp corner, Shadow slid to a stop when he found that the school itself was on fire. The intense heat from the flames caused him to lift his hands to shield his face momentarily. Were there students that came early in there?! Were they burning alive?! He looked around to see nearby buildings on fire too. Everything was burning. People were screaming and dying all around him as their cries rang loudly in his ears.

He was about to try rushing into the burning school building to see if anyone needed saving when movement caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. He quickly prepared himself for a fight by lifting his fists and spinning around to face them. Yet, he found himself baffled to see Sonic the Hedgehog and Knuckles the Echidna throwing punches at each other as they rolled around in the ash ridden grass outside of the burning school building.

"Faker!" Shadow called to the blue blur and moved over, hoping to somehow stop their fight. He coughed as he got closer, the smoke was starting to burn his lungs. Neither hedgehog or echidna reacted to his call however, they were too busy fighting each other. Wasn't there more important things to do than fight each other? Did they not see the _school_ was on _fire_?! Or did they not hear the deafening _screams_ all around them?!

"You can't have her!" He heard Sonic saying as Shadow got closer. Sonic threw a fist at Knuckles and hit the echidna in the jaw, causing him to roll off and onto the ground next to him. "I saw her first!"

"Just because she saw you first doesn't mean she likes you!" Knuckles snarled back as he quickly tackled Sonic again. The two of them continued to roll around in the grass, seemingly oblivious to Shadow as the ebony hedgehog stopped in front of them, still standing in the street. "Mia's going to be mine once she gets over Shadow!"

This was all about Mia? Seriously?! Shadow stared at the two of them in a stunned silence before looking around for anyone else nearby frantically, coughing from the thick smoke again. If Sonic was here, Tails or Amy had to be close. Surely one of them had more common sense then these two idiots! As he looked around, he could hear explosions in the distance, echoing with the screams and cries of dying people.

Shadow gripped his backpack tighter when he saw Amy and Rouge fighting each other with their friendship bracelet string flying everywhere on the other side of the street. They were going to be no help for him either. Was everyone losing their sanity over Princess Mia? When did everyone even get here to fight anyways? He didn't even know Sonic and Knuckles were capable of waking up this early.

This was ridiculous. Shadow reached into his backpack and his hand clamped around the Chaos Emerald. It was time to get to business and end this nonsense. Yet before he could pull it out, a voice that caused his blood to boil called out to him once more.

"Shadow!"

Shadow glared back behind him as Princess Mia herself came running up, oblivious to Knuckles and Sonic's fight over her very existence at Shadow's feet. Her high heeled boots clicked against the ashy concrete as she raced over, her scent as overwhelming to Shadow as ever but at least it canceled out the suffocating smoke entirely. Mia beamed as she hugged Shadow from behind when she reached him. She didn't even seem to notice Shadow's body tense and she didn't let go until he shoved her off, removing his hand from the Chaos Emerald as he did so. "Get off." He told her angrily. "I don't have time for you."

"B-But Shadow…!" Mia said and put her hands to the locket around her neck and stepped back, looking hurt by Shadow's words. Her eyes started filling up with tears. "W-Why… why don't you love me?"

Shadow took several angry, deep breaths to calm down as he turned to look back at Sonic and Knuckles. Yet with each breath taken, more of Mia's dizzying smell of perfume filled his senses instead of his usual rational thoughts and this realization only made him angrier. The blue hedgehog and red echidna at his feet were still fighting, neither seeming to notice that Mia was right in front of them. The screams were ringing painfully in his ears as well as the crackling from the fires as they grew bigger, stronger. People were _dying_ and Mia wanted to talk about their love life, was this seriously the time?! Just ignore her. Just ignore her.

He took another deep breath before quickly looking up to the sky quickly when a low rumbling sound came from it, distracting himself from his angry thoughts. A cool wind blew through the burning school yard, carrying Mia's overwhelming scent with it. Yet the wind was nice enough to blow away part of the thick ash covering the sky and revealed the Egg Carrier flying high above, shooting rockets down at the people below. Well that explained what was causing the fires and where Eggman was probably at now. Shadow realized he had to get up there fast before Eggman killed more innocent people. But what about Sonic?

"Do-Don't you even know who I am?" Mia sniffed after a long moment of silence as Shadow tried to decide whether it was worth it to use the emerald on Sonic and the others or to just go without them to Eggman before everyone was dead. "It's me, Maria!"

Shadow whipped his head around to stare at Mia as she smiled weakly to him like this was no big deal. Mia held her arms out to Shadow as if she was asking for a hug. "It's me, Maria!" She said again. "Don't you remember me, Shadow? We spent so much time playing together on the Space Colony ARK. I'm Maria Robotnik's new reincarnation, Mia. I'm not sick anymore so we can be together forever now."

Anger. Anger flared up inside of Shadow once again and it took all of his might to not to lash out at Mia right there and then with a Chaos Spear. His vision was turning red from rage. She was nothing like Maria! She was not Maria! Maria wouldn't mock anyone like she did to Knuckles' echidna clan. Maria didn't have the ability or even the heart to make friends fight each other over her like Sonic and Knuckles were doing now or Amy and Rouge. Maria wouldn't be standing around trying to get Shadow to confess his love for her in the middle of a battlefield while innocent people died around them. Maria would've been too shy to do half the things that Mia did in public. Even if by some unexplainable miracle she _was_ the reincarnation of Maria, she was nothing like the Maria he adored on the ARK and she _never_ would be!

Deep breaths. Deep breaths. Ignore the smell of her perfume. There were people who needed him. Shadow put his hand back in his backpack, gripping the red Chaos Emerald again as he glared at Mia. To Eggman's ship. That's where he had to go now, he didn't have any more time to sit around and be angry. He'd leave the others here with her _highness_ too. He couldn't handle Mia for much longer nor the nonsense from Sonic and the others over her. "I don't have time for you right now." He said through gritted teeth. "There are people _dying_!"

Sadness appeared on Mia's face and the air itself suddenly seemed heavier. She slowly put her hands behind her back and looked up to him. "But… Shadow… what about us?"

"I don't have time for your games, Mia! I need to stop Eggman!" Shadow took another moment to take deep breaths to clear his head so he could use Chaos Control to teleport onto the Egg Carrier.

A pitiful sigh came from the elegant, beautiful creature in front of him. She shook her head, sadly looking away to the side at the ashy grass Sonic and Knuckles were fighting on. Tears that were in her eyes glittered spectacularly in the fires from the burning school and buildings around them before dripping down her face. Some of her deep purple and electric blue hair fell in her face. "You… You can't live without love, Shadow..." Princess Mia whispered in her silky, smooth voice. After a moment, she looked up to Shadow, her eyes glowing with a fiery passion he had never seen before.

Suddenly she jumped at Shadow and before the hedgehog could react, a silver dagger was embedded deep into his stomach. He doubled over from the attack, coughing up blood from the unexpected blow. His crimson eyes stared at the freshly blood stained ground below him as his shock numbed out the pain from the dagger quickly.

Shadow could feel Mia's free hand go into his backpack as she continued to dig the dagger deeper into him. A sound of delight escaped her rosy lips as she also wrapped her hand around the Chaos Emerald. Shadow wanted to move, to somehow get her hands off the emerald, but he couldn't. The returning pain from the dagger was making it difficult to think or move. His vision was swimming, it was getting hard to breathe and her perfume felt like it was suffocating him.

Mia slashed upwards with the dagger to pull it out of him after a moment of thought, causing Shadow to stumble back and let go of the emerald. Blood sprayed into the air. Mia now held the bloody dagger and red emerald in her hands, smiling at a job well done as she watched the hedgehog sway in front of her. Sonic and Knuckles' fight carried on next to them.

Shadow tried to stay on his feet, wanting to fight back, but it was impossible to stay standing; he crumpled into a heap on the ashy street. Shadow's crimson eyes stared helplessly at Mia's high heeled boots in front of him as the princess smiled with mesmerizing grace and beauty at her perfect reflection in the Chaos Emerald. The world started spinning out of control for Shadow, making him feel sick. He closed his eyes. The screams of the dying and explosions were echoing louder and louder in his head as well as Sonic and Knuckle's taunts at each other. The ground was pooling with blood.

"Sayonara, Shadow the hedgehog."

And the world went black.

 _The End_


End file.
